Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been urged to consider conducting online voter registration to simplify the process and also to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The suggestion was made by the Election Resource Centre (ERC), a local electoral lobby group, in a statement Tuesday. Read the statement:
Voter registration is a systematic process which determines the eligibility of citizens to vote in an election and in recent months ZEC, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 has suspended all electoral processes as the disease continues to ravage the country.
In 2017, the ZEC adopted a form of electronic registration model named Biometric Voter Registration (BVR).
Online registration allows an individual to register by using the internet, and this simplifies the registration process. Online voter registration systems supplement the traditional registration process and follow essentially the same process, but instead of filling out a paper application, the voter fills out a form via an internet site, and that form is submitted electronically to election officials for approval.
The ERC noted that the long term, benefits of a change to online registration includes that globally registration has been deemed to be more accurate and easier to collate for election officials.
It added that online registration encourages voter registration hence citizen participation in political processes since it is less cumbersome to register online.
The ERC added that online registration has also become common practice globally.
This comes amid increased calls for the implementation of electoral reforms to allow the voice of the citizenry to be heard.
Some stakeholders including the opposition have often claimed that the voters roll is flawed as there are some ghost voters who need to be flushed out.
More: NewZimbabwe
